St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-01-15

question Oh ILC IeXG: - hOW oleA fti tiAoN'
Towards what destiny are you tending, ana
h4w fast are you getting on toward lts
Again, l remark that there are many
who estimate their life on earth by their
sorrows and misfortunes. Through great
many ef your lives the ploWshare hatn
gone zary deep, turning up a terrible FUR
row. You have been betrayed and mis-
represented, and set upon, and slapped by
impertinence, and pounded by misfortune.
The brightest life must have ITS shadows,
and the smoOthest path its thorns. On the
happiest brood the hawk pounces. No es-
cape from trouble Of some kind. " hile
glorious John Milton was losing MS eye
sight he heard that Salmasus was glad OF
it; while Sheridan's comedy was being en-
acted in. Drury Lane Thcater, Cumberland,
his enemy sat growing at it i'll the stage
box; while Bishop Cooper was surrounded
by the favor of learned men his wife took
his lexicon manuscript, the result OF long
life of anxiety and toll, and threw it into
the fire
Misfortune, trial, vcxation for almost every
one. Pope applaude1 Of all the world, has
stoop in the shoulder that annOys him so
much that he has q tunnel dug, so that ne
may 60 unobserved from garden to grotto
and from grotto to garden. Cano, the IA
cructix that the priest holds before him,
because it is such a poor specimen OF cult
ure, And so, sometimes through taste AMI
sometimes through learned menace, and
sometimes through physical distress-aye,
in ten thousand Ways-trouble comes to
harass anu annoy.
And vet it is unfair to measure q mans life
by his misfortunes, because where there is
one stalk ofnight-shade there are fifty mari
Colds and harebellS; where there IS one
cloud thunder charged there are hundreds
that stray across the heavens, the glory OF
land and sky asleep in their bosom. Be-
cause death came and took your child away,
did you Immediately forget all the five
| years, or the ten years, or the fifteen years,
| in which she came every night with KISS,
all the tones Of your heart pealing forth at
the sound of her voice Or the soft touch OF
| her hand! Because in some financial Eu-
rocelydon your fortune went into the break
ers, did you forget all those years III which
the luxurie5 and eXtraVagances OF lie
showered on your pathway! Alas! that IS
an unwise man, an unphilosophlc man, and,
most Of all, an unchristian man, who meas
ures his life on earth by groans and tears,
and dyspeptic fit and abuse, and scorn, and
neuralgia thrust
pie who estimate their life on earth by the
amount Of money they have accumulated.
| They say: 1.-THE year 1915, or 1876, or 1885
was wasted" Why! Iade no money
Now, it is all can't and iHsincerjty to talk
| against money as though it had no Valle
| 1t is refinement, and education, and ten
| thousand blessed surroundings; it IS the
| spreading of the table that feeds your chill
droa's hunger; it is the lighting OF the fur
mace that keeps you warm; it IS the max
| ing of the bed On which you rest from care
and anxiety; it is the carrying out at last
of you to decent sepulture, and the put
ting up of the slab, on which is chiseled the
story of your Christian hope. 1t is simply
hypocrisy, this TRADE IN pulpit and lecture
hail. against money, as though It had no
uses. 1t is hands, and feet, and sails, and
ten thousand grand and glorious enter
prises.
But while all this is so, he who uses
money, or thinks Of money as any thing but
a means to an end, will. ind out his mis-
take when the glittering treasures slip out
of his nerveless grasp, and he goes out of
this world without a shilling of money or
certificate of stock. He might better have
been the Christian porter that opened his
gate or the begrimed workman who last
night heaved coal into his cellar. Bonds
| and mortgages and leases have their use,
| but they make poor yard stick with which
| to measure life. They that boast them
selves of their wealth, and trust on the
multitude of their riches, none of them can
| by any means redeem his brother, nor give
to God ransom for him, that he should
not see corruption. 'sWise men die, like
wise the fool and the british person per-
ish, and leave their wealth to Others"
But there are maryland I wish there
were more-who estimate their life by their
moral and spiritual development. 1t is not
! sinful egotism for Christian man to say:
81 am purer than used to be.' There is
no sinful egotiSm in that 1t is not base
egotism for soldier to say: Il know more
| about military tactics than [ used to before
I took musket in my hand, and learned to
/ present arms and when l was pest to
the drilling officer" 1t is not base egotism
| for sailor to say: II know better how to
clew down the mizzen top-sail than [ used
to before had ever seen a ship" And
there is no sinful egotism when Christian
man, fighting the battles of the Lord, or if
you will have it, voyaging towards a
heaven of eternal rest, says: II know
more about spiritual tactics and about voy-
| aging towards Heaven than | used to-"
/ Why, there are those in this presence
who have measured lances with many foe,
and endorsed it. There are Christian men
here, who have become swarthy by ham,
mering at the forge of calamity. They
stand on an entirely different plane of
character from that which they once occu-
pied They are measuring their life on
earth by golden-gated Sabbaths, by pente-
costal prayer meetings, by communion
tables, by baptismal fonts, by hallelujlahs in
the temple. They have stood on Sinai and
heard it thunder; they have stood on Pts
gah and looked over into the Promised
Land; they have stood on Calvary and
seen the cross bleed. They can, ike Paul
the Apostle, write on their heaviest trou-
bles Eight" and ''but for moment" The
darkest night their soul is irradiated, as
was the night over Bethlehem, by the
faces of those who have come to proclaim